ProQuest Dissertations - The University of Arizona Campus Repository

cases. Only about two-fifths of France was considered to be
pays de droit ecrit (Maitland, 1985, p. 67).
Planiol notes that when the customary laws of Paris
were written in Paris, the majority of the counsellors of
State were from the northern provinces. The Parliament of
Paris had had a preponderant role in creating the ancient law,
and thus the customary law predominated in the Code. He says
that the contrary would have been historical nonsense (p. 66).
The coustume of Bordeaux considered the written law beneath
natural reason (p. 67). The beginning of the codification of
the coustumes is attributed to Louis XI. In 1453, the Edict of
Montils-les-Tours, commanded the official redactions of the
general customs of the provinces. There was progress under
Charles VIII and Louis XII. Around 1510 many customs were
redacted, which made them true written laws. Those of Orleans
were redacted around 1509, and those of Paris in 1510. There
were also demands for codification of customary law by the
Estates General at Orleans in 1560. The spokesman for the
clergy said:
Nous demandons une foy, une loy, un roy (p. 74).
Elective power is a tenet of the scholastics, within
context. Saint Thomas recognized that it is not always
necessary to obey unjust laws, and his theory that the
sovereign was not bound to obey his own laws, sounds
absolutist. It echoes half of the sentence in Byzantine law.
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